New high-tech building planned for 12 Mile Road in Novi

A proposed office-commercial development site lies on Twelve Mile Road in Novi between West Park and Taft Road - on the south side. (Photo: John Heider | hometownlife.com)

A new high-tech corporate building is planned to arrive on 12 Mile in Novi in the future.

The city's planning commission recommended approval at its meeting May 8 for the 90,000-square-foot office building and warehouse along the south side of 12 Mile between West Park Drive and Taft.

The building has a client identified, but is not being revealed quite yet until a few more issues are hammered out, said Oleg Amcheslavskyof Amson Nassar Development.

"We're in the midst of a deal and we're getting pretty close," he said. "It's a really nice building."

The building would sit on 10 acres of property and contain a retention pond and about 20 percent of the current trees on the site, which is mostly vacant and has a residential home on it. There is no word on the number of jobs the facility, if approved, would bring to the city.

The removal of many of the trees was something that concerned Commissioner Patrick Hornung, who wasn't satisfied the removal of trees and placing funds into the city's tree fund would result in an adequate number of trees getting replaced.

"(It) ends up for less than a one-for-one exchange here in Novi," he said. "It feels like this development is using that for a first option for tree removal."

Amcheslavsky said the original plan was to build a larger building on the site, which would have removed more trees. But the client he's working with requires a 90,000 square-foot building, and he decided to keep an outdoor retention pond rather than an underground water detention system.

"We were trying to leave some nice ponds and something to look at instead of underground retention," he said. "We did our best to save as much as we could."

The building would also have a second emergency access point, something the city required for the recommended approval for emergency vehicles. Traffic along 12 Mile, especially at rush hour, was a concern for some.

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The already-busy Twelve Mile Road near Taft might get even busier should a good-sized development take place on its south side. (Photo: John Heider | hometownlife.com)

Commissioner John Avdoulos said while the traffic situation on the road is not ideal, it's what the city has to work with until any possible expansion could take place of the road.

"It just shows growth," he said. "This stretch of 12 Mile is going to be developed even further, so the road currently is what we have to deal with."

That stretch of 12 Mile is under the jurisdiction of the Road Commission for Oakland County.

Commissioner Michael Lynch said he anticipated seeing the building get constructed in the future.

"I think it's a good plan and I look forward to seeing the building as is," he said.

Contact David Veselenak at dveselenak@hometownlife.com or 734-678-6728. Follow him on Twitter @davidveselenak.